Angela Ruales was just 14 when she stepped on a landmine in Colombia last year that tore off her legs and claimed the life of her two-month-old niece.
Seventeen years earlier, Afghan schoolboy Firoz Ali Alizada lost both of his legs after stepping on a landmine as he strolled to school with his classmates.
The two survivors were among delegates attending a conference in the Colombian city of Medellin on Friday to mark the United Nations International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.
The conference -- Bridges Between Worlds -- was being held to address ways of supporting landmine victims as mandated under the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which came into effect in 1999.
Colombia ranks second in the list of countries most affected by landmines, just behind Afghanistan.
The venue for the two-day conference which wrapped up on Friday -- Medellin -- is the capital of Antioquia department, the worst-hit region in the country. Since 1990, a fifth of all landmine casualties have been sustained in the region.
Teenage survivor Ruales, recalled the moment when her life was ripped apart as she walked along a roadside in southern Colombia.
"It happens in seconds. I felt the explosion and remember falling to the floor," she said.
The youngster recalled the arduous journey she has endured towards recovery, which involved lengthy separations from her family as she underwent treatment in Bogota.
"It was very hard to accept, I kept crying ... but little by little I went forward," said Ruales, who uses crutches but hopes one day to walk freely with prosthetic limbs.
Alizada, who is now a director for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, said his own case proved that rehabilitation was possible.
He was 13 when he stepped on a mine in 1996 in a Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan.
"For a few seconds I didn't know what had happened, but then I saw a piece of my shoe in the distance and my legs in a pool of blood," he said. "I survived but I lost my legs.
"I thought it was over. Farewell to my dream of being a pilot or a police officer," he said. But with the encouragement of his father who accompanied him during his rehabilitation in Kabul, he learnt English and computer skills and slowly managed to rebuild his life.
Alizada, who now lives in Switzerland, ended up working for a non-governmental organization in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
Angela Ruales was just 14 when she stepped on a landmine in Colombia last year that tore off her legs and claimed the life of her two-month-old niece.
Seventeen years earlier, Afghan schoolboy Firoz Ali Alizada lost both of his legs after stepping on a landmine as he strolled to school with his classmates.
The two survivors were among delegates attending a conference in the Colombian city of Medellin on Friday to mark the United Nations International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.
The conference — Bridges Between Worlds — was being held to address ways of supporting landmine victims as mandated under the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which came into effect in 1999.
Colombia ranks second in the list of countries most affected by landmines, just behind Afghanistan.
The venue for the two-day conference which wrapped up on Friday — Medellin — is the capital of Antioquia department, the worst-hit region in the country. Since 1990, a fifth of all landmine casualties have been sustained in the region.
Teenage survivor Ruales, recalled the moment when her life was ripped apart as she walked along a roadside in southern Colombia.
“It happens in seconds. I felt the explosion and remember falling to the floor,” she said.
The youngster recalled the arduous journey she has endured towards recovery, which involved lengthy separations from her family as she underwent treatment in Bogota.
“It was very hard to accept, I kept crying … but little by little I went forward,” said Ruales, who uses crutches but hopes one day to walk freely with prosthetic limbs.
Alizada, who is now a director for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, said his own case proved that rehabilitation was possible.
He was 13 when he stepped on a mine in 1996 in a Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan.
“For a few seconds I didn’t know what had happened, but then I saw a piece of my shoe in the distance and my legs in a pool of blood,” he said. “I survived but I lost my legs.
“I thought it was over. Farewell to my dream of being a pilot or a police officer,” he said. But with the encouragement of his father who accompanied him during his rehabilitation in Kabul, he learnt English and computer skills and slowly managed to rebuild his life.
Alizada, who now lives in Switzerland, ended up working for a non-governmental organization in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
